Texans Gone Wild

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas, who has led the charge on a far-right agenda in the state.CreditJay Janner/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press

AUSTIN, Tex. — IN the wee hours of Nov. 9, I had an overwhelming urge to climb up on my roof here with a megaphone and shout to the rest of the country, “Welcome to Texas, y’all!”

Republicans have controlled all three branches of government in my home state for more than a decade. Many policies now being championed by President Trump and Congressional leaders seem old hat to Texans: defunding public education, going after immigrants, shredding the safety net. But rather than resting their boots on the table, political leaders in Texas have moved farther to the right.

Our 140-day every-other-year Texas legislative session began in January. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who controls the Senate and is arguably more powerful than Gov. Greg Abbott — is leading the far-right charge. Under his sway, the Senate has already passed bills that starve government, crack down on undocumented immigrants and discriminate against transgender people. Despite opposition from law enforcement, business and nonprofit groups like mine, the bills sailed through the Senate and await consideration in the House.

One Senate bill threatens local law enforcement officials and department heads with criminal prosecution and police departments with loss of state money if they fail to comply with federal immigration orders. Even before the bill passed the Senate in February, Governor Abbott cut $1.5 million in criminal justice funding to Travis County (which includes Austin) to punish it for its policy of reducing cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the same period, immigration raids in Austin terrified immigrant families and led to the arrest of 51 people, most of whom had no previous convictions.

Lieutenant Governor Patrick also championed a “bathroom bill” modeled on the one North Carolina recently repealed, which would require transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates. When the N.F.L., shortly after this year’s Super Bowl in Houston, dared to suggest that the law would be a factor in scheduling future N.F.L. events in Texas, Governor Abbott — in a “me too!” gesture to Mr. Patrick’s pandering — told league officials “to get the hell out of politics.” The Senate passed the bathroom bill in March.

The Texas Senate also recently passed a school vouchers bill that would drain millions from public school funds to pay for private tuition. Having starved state government for years, the Legislature is now determined to make it harder for cities and counties to raise money for themselves. The latest crusade began last spring, when Paul Bettencourt, a Republican state senator from Houston, used bogus math to whip local taxpayers into a frenzy over alleged property tax increases. The result was the passage in March of a Senate bill that limits the ability of cities and counties to raise the revenue needed to pay for education, health care and public safety.

There are two silver linings in the thundercloud of extremism billowing over Texas. One is the potential for a revived moderate middle that believes in fact-based public policy. The other is the groundswell of public engagement.

As a veteran local lobbyist joked recently, the only thing standing between Texas and the Middle Ages is the House, ably presided over by Speaker Joe Straus, Republican of San Antonio. In contrast to the Senate’s far-right agenda, the House’s common-sense priorities include remodeling our outdated school finance system and advancing mental health reforms. It remains to be seen whether moderates in the House have the votes to stop all the bad bills coming their way from the Senate.

Fortunately, many Texans are out in force to help them. Frequent public rallies and marches have drawn record crowds around the state, including the nearly 50,000 people who turned out for the Women’s March in Austin. At a community forum with more than 1,000 people, one group of newly engaged Texans announced detailed plans to push for reforms of the state’s Child Protective Services Division. Both houses have now passed C.P.S. reform legislation.

Another inspiring morning was Muslim Day at the Capitol in January, when groups organized a human chain to protect Muslim speakers and participants outside the building. Texas Muslims were deeply moved by the gesture. “In all the years, we’ve never seen the sea of supporters that we see today,” said Alia Salem of the North Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. It was a stark contrast to the prior legislative session, when Muslims were greeted with hateful signs during a news conference and an agitator grabbed the mike from an imam to shout anti-Islam slogans.

Will the recent surge in civic engagement help elect leaders who are more representative of the state’s diversity in 2018? Two recent court rulings may help. Federal courts in Texas held that the state’s voter ID law and congressional redistricting maps intentionally discriminated against Latino and black voters.

The halls of the state Capitol remain crowded as we approach the final month of the legislative session. Thousands have traveled to Austin to voice their opposition to bad bills, often waiting for hours to testify for just a few minutes. Last month, children of undocumented parents stayed up late to ask lawmakers not to deport their parents.

It was chilling to watch many legislators, stone faced, ignore their pleas. But even so, while people of all ages and backgrounds waited bleary-eyed in the hallways to share their stories and the values that come with them, I could see the potential for a brighter future for Texas.

Ann Beeson is the executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities.